SALEM — Farm employment has remained pretty steady in Oregon for decades, and the state’s economy is far more closely tied to agriculture than elsewhere.

“It’s roughly speaking twice as important to Oregon as it is to the typical state in the nation,” according to Josh Lehner with the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis. He compiled a fresh look at the state’s agricultural economy this month as part of his agency’s quarterly report to the Legislature.

As a share of all Oregon jobs, farming’s relative importance has been in steady decline for 50 years. Agriculture accounted for about 1 in 18 Oregon jobs in 1970; it’s just 1 in 40 jobs now.

The falloff has been much steeper elsewhere in the country, however, and the new analysis finds Oregon farms generate twice as much personal income overall than in the average state. Some counties generate farm income at several times the national rate, small communities where Lehner said agriculture “is a key driver of all economic trends.”

The report serves as a baseline to monitor the effects of a new law that makes farmworkers eligible for overtime pay. The law, approved by lawmakers last winter, phases in overtime pay over the next several years and gives farmers tax credits to help offset the higher costs.

The overtime mandate was intensely controversial, with farmers warning that the higher labor costs would put family-owned operations out of business. So the bill directed state economists to track the impacts from the overtime mandate.

While it’s too soon to see the effects of the overtime rules, it’s clear that agriculture is an economic force in Oregon, producing farm products with an annual market value of around $5 billion.

Oregon has about 60,000 farm jobs, according to federal estimates, roughly in line with past years. Farm earnings represent 0.8% of personal income in the state, twice the national level.

Much of that income is concentrated in a small number of counties, where relatively small populations magnify the relative impact.

For example, Morrow County in northeastern Oregon – with a population of just 12,000 – has farm earnings 62 times the national average, according to the state economists’ report.

Farm incomes are also elevated in southeastern Oregon, the Willamette Valley and parts of the coast. In the state’s urban centers, among them Multnomah, Washington and Deschutes counties, farming income is far overshadowed by other occupations.

Taken as a whole, though, Lehner said agriculture has been a consistently durable part of the state economy, which ranks 15th nationally in its reliance on farm jobs.

“It matters overall to the state of Oregon,” Lehner said. “It is a larger economic sector.”